


a little bit of faith

by MakerOfAnarchy



Category: Glee RPF
Genre: M/M, camping!au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-03
Updated: 2013-07-03
Packaged: 2017-12-17 12:50:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/867734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MakerOfAnarchy/pseuds/MakerOfAnarchy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Chris and Darren need a break, that’s why they decided to go camping. At first it’s all just friendly then things happen." -- From the owner of the gifset I based this on. That's basically it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	a little bit of faith

“You don’t know the first thing about camping.”

“Neither do you.”

“Yes, which is why this is a _bad_ idea, Darren,” Chris sighs and looks back down at his phone, clicks it on, then off, then back on.

“Come on Chris, we have a three day weekend and _no_ plans,” Darren says, throwing their bags in the backseat of his car. “That is a miracle in and of itself, we should cherish it.”

Chris bites his lip. The whole idea makes him anxious – him and Darren, two pessimists who can barely live alone without burning something, spending three days in an unfamiliar place with no access to outside civilization just sounds like a recipe for disaster. But Darren is _convincing_ and Chris never really stood a chance when Darren grabbed his hand and pulled out puppy dog eyes. But that doesn’t mean he won’t be wary. He’s always wary.

“ _By getting lost in the woods_?” Darren’s sheepish grin just infuriates him a little bit more.

“Of course we’re not gonna get lost,” Darren says, and ushers Chris to the passenger’s seat by his shoulders, rubbing gently. “Besides I’ve been camping – “

“…Just because you’ve been camping doesn’t mean you know how to _camp_ – “

“And I’ve researched; I know exactly where we’re going. Just trust me, you won’t regret it.”

\---

Chris stops complaining once he sees how gorgeous the area Darren has them settle in is. They arrive in the humid night, and Chris feels absolute awe as he looks through the window and sees all of the _stars_. He opens the door, steps out of the car and holds up a hand, feeling like he could just reach out and _take_ , sweep the whole universe under his arm and stow it away for him and him only.

It’s utterly still, the only sounds are Darren opening his trunk and pulling things out, and Chris closes his eyes against the hot and gentle wind, unwinds his scarf from around his neck.

Out here, it feels like nothing is really quite so impossible.

He feels a hand clasp around his and he startles just a bit, looks over to see Darren smiling gently, and suddenly Chris’ attention has been taken from the stars to a different sight. Their hands aren’t tangled too tight together, just a loose grasp as Darren picks up their hands and gestures to the car with them both.

“Let’s get the tent set up and then we’ll sleep.”

“Why don’t we just sleep in the car until there’s actual light to do this in?” Chris raises an eyebrow, wraps his scarf around his wrist just to have something to do other than stare at Darren’s ass as he walks away. Darren turns his head over his shoulder and shoots Chris a coy look that has Chris swallowing and unwrapping the scarf.

“That is _not_ the spirit, Christopher,” Darren grins and steps back to grab Chris and pull him along. “Have a little faith that everything will be alright.” Darren looks back over his shoulder and squeezes Chris’ fingers, “Even if they don’t turn out how we expected, I promise we’ll get out of here alive and maybe even happy, okay?”

Chris looks up at the stars, listens to the rustle and crunch of the ground beneath his feet; feels the steady warmth of Darren’s hand and he nods.

\--

Chris sits on the trunk of the car and watches Darren struggle with the tent.

Well, Chris wouldn’t call it struggling. Darren is just kind of purposefully slow, holding up pieces and trying to put them in places they _obviously_ don’t go, just to make Chris laugh. They get distracted arguing playfully plenty of times and Chris knows it’s partially his fault Darren’s taking so long. But he’s content, no matter what he says to Darren.

It takes fifty minutes before the tent is finally standing, and when it is Darren stands up, takes a bow, gesturing for Chris to applaud, which he does sarcastically as he says, “Just when I was starting to get worried we’d have to sleep in the _car_.”

“You know, you can be a real priss sometimes,” Darren says, and reaches for Chris’ waist to pull him off the trunk quickly, making Chris shout in surprise.

“Shut up and grab the sleeping bags so we can go to sleep.”

“Yes Your Highness,” Darren says teasingly, knocking Chris’ shoulder.

Chris looks back up to the sky and grins.

\--

“Chris, Chris,” Darren is shaking his shoulder insistently, “Chris, wake up. We’re going swimming.”

“It’s way too fucking early,” Chris groans and rolls over, jerking his shoulder from Darren’s grasp and trying to find sleep again.

“How do you know, you haven’t even opened your eyes,” Chris can hear the pout in Darren’s voice.

“I’m magic like that,” Chris says, and just like that his chances of falling back to sleep are gone.

He groans and rolls over, opens his eyes to see Darren still hovering over him, dressed in only his swim trunks and smiling as he says, “Hi.”

Chris closes his eyes, tries to bat down the smile working its way onto his face, “You’d better at least have something for me to eat.”

“Um, I have an apple?”

Chris sighs and sits up, “Fine.”

\---

The lake Darren walks them down a path too is sparkling and wide, tucked into the trees so deep Chris would have never guessed it was there. It’s calm but rushing, and the only other sounds are another group of people a ways from them, across from them and not paying them any attention.

“There aren’t, like, sharks in here or something are there?” He says it to make Darren laugh, and Darren does, taking his hand again and leading him down the slight slope to the base of the water.

He looks down at their intertwined hands, wonders why Darren hasn’t let go even though they’ve stopped walking.

Finds he doesn’t care.

Chris takes a tentative step forward, slides his toes into the cold water and groans, taking another step so both feet are fully covered. Darren lets go of his hand and he wades further, lying on his back and floating.

“You dragged me here, aren’t you going to at least get in?” Chris says, and snorts out water when Darren splashes in.

“Of course you couldn’t do that in a dignified manner,” He sits up and wipes his face, shaking his wet hair.

He looks up to see Darren grinning at him, waggling his eyebrows before he dips under, and Chris is fully suspecting it when Darren slithers through the water to grab his ankles and yank him down. Chris goes without complaint, opening his eyes in the clear water to see Darren in front of him, smiling underwater and waving his fingers.

“This was your plan all along,” Chris says when they emerge, “Take me to the water and then drown me. Clever.”

Darren laughs and wades over to him, splashes him a bit to startle him. “No, I brought you camping because we both needed a vacation.”

“This is hardly a vacation, Darren,” Chris says and rustles the water gently. A bird flutters by, making pleasant chirping sounds as it goes, and the sun rises a little farther up in the skin.

He tilts his head up and tries to soak up the sun before it gets too hot.

He’s not expecting Darren to say anything but he does, and his voice is rumbling and soothing as he says, “Maybe I’ll just have to take you on an actual vacation one day,” floating just under the quiet of the day and across Chris’ skin, like a promise. Like he’s making a promise.

Chris so very badly wants him to be making a promise.

\--

They stay in the water a long time, floating and talking, splashing and laughing because they’re _alone_ and there are no boundaries.

They get out of the water plenty of times, but they don’t actually leave until dusk is just beginning to settle and their toes are shriveled from the water and Chris knows he’s sunburned across his nose.

“Okay,” Darren says when they get back, dropping their bag on the floor and rubbing his hands together like a plan. “I’m making waffles,” and he waggles his eyebrows like he’s just so damn happy with himself.

Chris laughs and says, “One: There’s no way you can make waffles using a campfire without a whole fucking fold out kitchen.” Chris raises his eyebrows, “And two: did you just make a Shrek reference?”

“Who says I don’t have a fold out kitchen handy, Chris? What did I say about faith,” Darren tsks and sets about setting up a fire. “And so what if it is?” Darren looks up at him, smiling teasingly.

Before Chris can say anything, Darren is up from the chair he was sitting on and grabbing Chris’ hands, twirling him around unwillingly.

“ _I’m all alone…_ ”

“Oh god, stop – “

“ _No one here beside me…_ ”

“I’m right here you dumbass – “

“… _except Chris who’s kind of a party pooper so not really…I’m all alone…”_

 _“_ You’re so ridiculous, I swear,” Chris says and lets himself be pulled into Darren’s insistent arms.

“Okay, okay, would you like me to sing another song?” Darren says, and spins them so quickly Chris stumbles, closer into Darren.

“I’d much rather listen to the radio,” Chris lays his head on Darren’s shoulder.

“You don’t mean that.”

 “No I don’t,” Chris sighs, closing his eyes and falling easily into the feeling of Darren’s arms around him so tightly.

Darren starts humming, seemingly out of habit and Chris perks up, tilts his head up to puts his lips next to Darren’s ear. “Sing that song.”

“What song?” Darren’s chest rumbles underneath Chris’ own, and he turns his head, watches his Adam’s Apple work enticingly. He wants to kiss Darren so badly.

“The one you were just humming.”

There’s a pause in which they simply rock together gently, and then, “ _I heard there was a secret song, that David played and it pleased the Lord…”_

Chris sighs into Darren’s shoulder and floats, Darren’s voice and the sounds of nature taking him somewhere he wants to stay.

\--

“Do you ever wonder what it’d be like it you hadn’t landed Glee?”

Chris swallows, smiles hesitantly. “Campfire talk, eh?”

“What else?” Darren looks up, his lips curving into a smile as he pokes the meat in the pan they’d brought.

“Should have expected you to do the most cliché thing possible,” Chris says, but then he rocks back in his chair and looks up at the stars.

It’s not really a hard question, but he finds himself wondering if there’s more weight to the simple words. If Darren is asking him for an answer he doesn’t think he has.

“Finished college, that’s for sure,” he nods.

“Ah, sometimes I forget you’re a drop out,” Darren grins back at him, wrinkling his nose in fake disgust. Chris picks up a stick and tosses it at his back, feeling satisfied when it tangles in Darren’s hair instead. Darren makes a noise and reaches up to pick it out.

“I think I’m doing okay, don’t you?” Chris furrows his eyebrows, and leans back, looking up at the sky again. He’s addicted to that weightless, insignificant feeling he get’s when he sees everything else. There is so much more than him, so much more than his problems. So much more than how he feels.

He looks down, catches Darren’s eye and his breathing hitches at the way Darren’s staring at him. For some reason, there doesn’t feel like there could be much more than that, anything more than the way Darren looks at him.

 “You’re doing just fine,” Darren finally says, and Chris looks back up, swallows down whatever’s in his throat.

Probably dust or something.

\--

“Chris, Chris!” Chris is worried that this is going to be an everyday occurrence, waking up with Darren shaking him and practically hissing in his face.

“ _What now_?”

“I think I heard a bear,” Darren says, and Chris laughs into the warmth of his bag.

“I hope he eats you first,” Chris chuckles out, and then squeaks when Darren tears the sleeping bag away from him.

“Get up, we’re going hiking.”

\--

“You didn’t bring anything to actually hike with did you?”

“…I have rope.”

\--

The trail they hike on isn’t long, but it slopes higher and higher, and Chris is irritated and out of breath the whole way until they get to the top.

But the end is pretty worth it, because they come to a mini cliff, over-looking other trees near them, evergreens bright and shaking with the wind. The sky is pink hued and Chris can tell sunrise is coming soon. Darren sits down and leans back, looking up at Chris expectantly as he pats the ground next to him.

“Sit down, we’re gonna watch the sunrise.”

“That’s why you woke me up at day break?” Chris sighs and sits. “Did you bring me a pair of sunglasses at least?”

Darren pulls out dark purple ones that match his own pink ones, and Chris takes them, sliding them on and leaning back also. They don’t have to actually wait long, because soon the sun is rising with ferocity and a bright certainty.

“Chris,” Darren says, and Chris has to tear his eyes away from the gorgeous sight in front of him to look at Darren.

He turns his head and Darren’s lips catch his in a sweet, barely there kiss. Chris is barely able to kiss back out of instinct, eyes wide open and shocked. Darren sits back and watches him apprehensively. Chris brings a hand to his mouth and turns back to the sun, still rising steadily.

Another promise.

He turns back to Darren who’s still watching him. Chris reaches out a hand, cups Darren’s neck and pulls him close, doesn’t waste time in kissing him like he may never get to again.

He wants to say that it feels like everything great love stories talk about, but really, it just feels like coming home.

(Maybe that is what they talk about in those stories.)

\--

They hold hands on the way back and don’t talk about it. But it is there, heavy between them the entire way back.

Chris watches Darren try to let go to start making something for them to eat, but Chris stops him with a tug on his hand.

“I’m not very hungry, Darren,” And it’s the cheesiest thing to ever come out of his mouth, _god he’s nervous_ , but the look Darren gives him makes up for it. They crawl into the tent one by one and then their lips are attached, and fingers are grasping, pulling at clothes with little space between them.

“I don’t suppose you have lube and condoms, do you?” Chris says as Darren kisses down his chest, Chris’ hand steady in his hair.

“Of course I do, Chris,” Darren sits up to pull down Chris’ pants. “What did I say about trusting me?”

\--

Marathon sex on the hard ground hurts, Chris finds. Like, it hurts a lot. Whether he’s on his knees behind Darren or on his ass underneath him, something is getting bruised by the hard ground. And they get much dirtier than if they’d just moved to the car.

But it’s still how they spend all of Sunday until they have to drive back – all around each other, pressing so close and feeling so endlessly happy as they giggle and try not to elbow each other in the small space of their tent.

Chris feels remorse when their amazing weekend ends, not wanting to go back to responsibilities when he still doesn’t quite know what they are but _it’s_ _okay_ , he thinks. _They’ll be fine_ , he tells himself.

It doesn’t feel like a lie. More like another promise -- this time to himself.

They leave behind the stars with their hands held tight, humming along to the same song that’s been in their heads since they danced together.

“ _Baby I’ve been here before; I’ve seen this room, I’ve walked this floor. You know, I used to live alone before I knew you._ ”

**Author's Note:**

> lyrics and title from "Hallelujah," the Jeff Buckley version. so sorry for mistakes uwu


End file.
